


(I'm Better) Near to You

by wonderlandstreasurechest



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Genre: F/M, Graduation, School Dances
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 10:39:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3807268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandstreasurechest/pseuds/wonderlandstreasurechest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the school year winds down, it seems that everything is changing, and Kira's had about enough change in the past year to last her a lifetime. With the final battle with Messogog on the horizon, the last thing anyone should be worried about is prom. And yet...</p><p>((A revisit of the Dino Thunder finale))</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Of Books and Their Covers

**Author's Note:**

> Historically, I have been TERRIBLE at updating multichapter fics, which is why I absolutely refused to upload this chapter until the next one was finished. I am actually really motivated by this story's plot (it's going good places, I promise!) and want to finish this entirely before June. I'm holding myself to that!

Kira Ford was getting good at pretending to be in control of her life.

She had a day planner. Her locker was pristine, her bedroom only a little less than. Anything she needed could be found. She had two jobs, one at the television station, and one in spandex, and she was good at both.

The problem was that no matter how organized or dedicated she was, Kira couldn’t push away the knowledge that in reality, too much of her life was actually controlled by a mutant lizard freak with a thirst for world domination. She couldn’t ever have any real sense of control as long as she had to worry about when and where would Messogog strike next. She certainly couldn’t plan for it. Who would she have to lie to about where she really went off to? She could only hope it wouldn’t be her parents. Again.

With her life full of so many uncertainties, Kira came to rely on the things she could control for comfort. She cleaned out her backpack every Sunday night. She left for school at the same time every day. She practiced guitar for a half-hour between homework and dinner. Most comforting of all, she kept a standing hang out with the guys at Hayley’s.

“Hey, Kira. Who’re you going to prom with?” Conner asked when she arrived later than usual, leaning back in one of Hayley’s new chairs.

If Hayley had seen, she would have freaked, but luckily for Conner, the cybercafé was busier than usual, which meant that Hayley was busier than usual. With the end of the school year, the warmer weather, and her recent menu updates, it was amazing that Hayley had time to breathe between running her business, updating their ranger tech and watching the monitoring system. All things considered, Hayley should have been the one in spandex because she was officially Kira’s hero. At least the CyberSpace was sure to turn a profit this month.

“Oh, I don’t have a date,” Kira answered, casually.

“You don’t seem too worried,” Conner observed, with something in his voice that told her he thought she should have been, but she really wasn’t.

Kira had gone to exactly one dance in her high school career: homecoming when she was a freshman. It was back when Kylee was a junior and still cared about their friendship. Kira had let Kylee do her hair, force her into a dress, and wear the inhumane torture devices most people called high heels, only to spend the evening listening to Kylee flirt with their bands’ bassist, who clearly wasn’t interested. Even if she went to prom stag, it was going to be an improvement.

“Well, it’s just a dance.”

After all, Kira had plenty of actual worries, most of them concerning Messogog and finals, but a stupid school dance? No stress necessary.

Conner's face set into concern, probably for her sanity. Just as she was sure she was going to get the “this is what high school students do” speech for the millionth time, Devin showed up, looking more skittish than usual and pulling Conner away from the table. Conner picked up the little black book he’d put down earlier and followed Devin to the bar.

“Saved by the Dev,” Kira smiled at Ethan, before exchanging their secret handshake.

“Tell me about it,” Ethan rolled his eyes. He imitated Conner’s posture and reclined in the chair. “Ethan, you don’t _get_ it. Like, I know you’ve spent the last four years of your life being tortured by my friends like the super, mega dorkasaurus we all know you are, but prom is a tradition, dude! You can’t possibly be thinking of doing something you’d actually enjoy, instead!”

“Hey, that was pretty good!” Kira laughed.

“Ethan,” Hayley’s voice hovered behind him as she set their usual orders on the table: an apple juice for Kira, a blueberry banana smoothie for Ethan and hot chocolate with too much whipped cream that Conner would inevitably have smeared on his face until Kira or Ethan handed him a napkin or three. Hayley tucked her tray under her arm and narrowed her eyes at Ethan. “New Chair. Hardwood floors. Don’t let me see it again.”

“But I—” He began, before realizing his efforts were fruitless. He leaned his elbows on the table. “Got it, Hayles. Sorry.”

Hayley patted his shoulder by way of accepting his apology before heading back behind the counter.

“So, you’re not going to prom, I take it?”

“No way,” Ethan scoffed. “I have more important things to do, not that Mr. Congeniality believes me.”

Kira looked over her shoulder to where Conner was giving Devin an animated speech and scribbling furiously onto napkins the details, presumably because he thought Devin would screw up whatever he was currently convincing him to do without a step by step. Sometimes, Conner could be a real pain.

But other times, he was pretty alright.

At the beginning of the year, had Kira been told she’d be best friends with Conner and Ethan, she wouldn’t have believed it. Well, Ethan, _maybe_. In all fairness, she knew the guys would have laughed at the idea of being _her_ friends back then, too.

The guys had been in a lot of the same classes as Kira through middle and high school, and while Ethan could seem like a smug know-it-all, he had at least always had an intelligent sense of humor, unlike a certain soccer jock whose idea of a good laugh usually involved tripping one of Ethan’s friends in the hallway. Kira was sometimes still sent reeling by the fact that Ethan was surprisingly humble (when he gave it half a try) and Conner was surprisingly literate, not to mention occasionally focused on things that weren’t girls or sports.

The guys had both grown on Kira, and in some strange way, she was mad at herself (and them) for not tolerating each other sooner. They were her living proof to the truth behind an old adage involving books and their covers.

“I don’t know which I’m more caught up on, though,” Ethan was saying, as Kira pulled her eyes away from Conner, who was still shoving napkin after napkin at Devin. She put the straw from the juice bottle to her lips. “That you, you who has spent three years being radically anti-dance, are going to prom at all, or that you’re not going to prom with Trent.”

Kira nearly choked on her apple juice.

“What? You think I’m that blind?” Ethan asked. “Kira, I don’t know if you remember, but I was there for a lot of the stuff involving Mr. Wow, and let me tell you the feeling was definitely mutual.”

“Which feeling?” Kira asked, still sputtering a little. “I mean, sure, he was pretty _wow_ or whatever when we first met, less so when he was literally evil, and even less when lied to all of us for months.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow at her, before sipping his smoothie.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Kira sighed. “I totally appreciate that he figured out his loyalties and picked the right side and everything, but Trent and me? As a couple? It’s probably not going to happen. For a while anyway. Besides, Messogog is still out there, and I don’t want us complicating things to get in the way of stopping that pre-historic freak.”

“Messogog, right,” Ethan nodded in fake agreement. “So, that’s it then? It’s not, I don’t know, you covering for the fact he hasn’t asked you or something?” He didn’t sound like he was buying it for a minute, and maybe he had a reason. In the past she’d been totally puppy loving on Trent, but now…

“I know you don’t believe me,” She said, slowly, “But trust me. Trent’s got way too much on his personal plate to even consider making a relationship of it, you know? And with our, um, extra-circular activities, I'm not so I want to get into anything with anyone for a while.”

“I guess.” Ethan said, as suddenly a devilish grin was spreading across his face. He pulled a slip of paper out from under a napkin on the table. “Wanna find out who the prom king’s asking to be his queen?”

“What’s that?” She asked, eyeing the folded piece of paper in Ethan’s hand.

“It fell out of the famous McKnight little black book.” He explained. “Set up in the style of the beauty pageants he thinks life is made up of, it’s his list of potential prom dates. Three categories. Ranked by Conner standards of cuteness, personality, and affluent parental figures.”

“Gimme,” Kira said, snatching the paper from his hand. “Submit your guesses, good sir.”

“Hm,” He thought for a minute. “Personality has got to be Krista, and she might be cuteness, too, but for the sake of spreading the risk, my official guess is Miranda from homeroom. For ability to pay for limo… Daphne from math class?”

“Let’s see,” She unfolded the top third. She squinted at Conner’s scrawl. “In the eloquently named category ‘Limo Dollar-Sign’, the winner is in fact Daphne Morgenstern, followed by three names I don’t know and Mina from the cheer squad. Good guessing.”

“Mina?” Ethan asked, incredulously. “Dude, I hope that was a last resort because I’m about ninety-seven percent sure that her boyfriend is Scary Derek and I am not going anywhere near that drama.”

“Next category,” Kira said, ignoring Ethan’s commentary. “Cuteness or Personality?”

“Personality. It’ll be Krista, I know it.”

“We’ll see. I’ve got my money on Cassidy,” She joked, unfolding the paper. The smile faded from her face as she read the number one name on the personality list. Either Conner was worse at spelling than she thought, or that was…

“Come on, am I right?” Ethan begged. “Kira?”

“That’s what it says.” She answered, breathlessly.

“What? What does it say?”

Kira couldn’t answer. She turned the paper so Ethan could see.

“Kira.” He read, jaw dropping. He shook his head in disbelief. “Dude. That’s you.”

“Really? Is it?” She spat, dropping the paper. “Thanks for the update, Ethe. What am I going do?”

Ethan picked up the paper as Kira’s head dropped into her hands and closed her eyes. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t unsee that list. It just kept coming back, in his hideous handwriting, her name at the top of the personality list. While, she supposed, it was flattering or something, it also added a totally unexpected new worry to Kira’s list. What if he actually asked her? She found herself praying that Daphne Morganstern’s ability to pay for a limo far outweighed whatever Conner found attractive about her own personality.

“Dude, you’re a double threat!” Ethan laughed, as though he was unaware what kind of trouble this development could mean for Kira. She glared at him in the way that she reserved for the highest offenses, which this definitely qualified as, causing him to stop his laughter with a cough. “I just mean… Did you see you’re number one for cuteness, too?”

“I am not,” She grabbed the paper once more in disbelief. He was right. She folded it back up and slid it into her pocket, deciding to hide the evidence for when Conner came back. “He can’t know we know,” she warned Ethan. “It’ll just make it… worse.”

“So, you’re gonna say no?”

“I’m going to tell him I can’t.” Kira said. “If he even asks me, which he might not, right?”

“You’re at the top of _two_ lists.” Ethan reminded her. “You’re looking like a serious contender for the crown in the Miss Prom Date pageant.”

“We have other things to worry about, though, like having a semi-functional team, for starters? I mean, he’ll understand, right?”

“Who’ll understand?” Conner asked, plunking himself back into his seat and taking up his hot chocolate. After a sip, he added, “And understand what?”

Kira and Ethan exchanged a look.

“Nobody!” Kira answered quickly, shoving a napkin at him for the whipped cream that had in fact gathered above his upper lip as predicted. “And nothing. I’ve gotta go. Dr. O paged me for… a thing. Bye.”

Kira stood up and headed for the exit, leaving a confused Conner and an uncomfortable Ethan at the table. She remembered she hadn’t paid for the apple juice, yet, and thanked god Hayley ran a tab for her and the guys due to their frequent need to skip out on the bill.

“Dude,” She heard Conner saying as she got to the door. “She knows she doesn’t have to pull the ‘thing’ thing on us, right?”


	2. Innocence Misplaced

Kira spent the next few days avoiding Conner like it was her job. She went out of her way to miss the bus to school, just so she'd have to walk and show up late. She cut around corners when she saw him coming. She even voluntarily sat between Cassidy and Devin in Dr. O's class, purposely leaving her usual seat between Conner and Ethan open, and refusing to accept the notes they passed.

"You know he's noticed, right?" Ethan told her between classes.

"Noticed what?"

"Come on, Kira," He rolled his eyes.  "The whole school's noticed. _Devin's_ noticed. The three of us are usually inseparable and suddenly the terrific trio is Kira-less? It's making the rounds."

"It's not like I'm going to avoid Conner forever," She assured him. "Just for a little while. Until prom. Until he gets over it."

"And if he doesn't get over it?"     

"This is Conner we're talking about."

*****

It had been a full week since she started avoiding him. She’d barely made it past his locker after school that day, but had managed to time it so she passed as he was focused on the combination lock. It had been a close call.

Kira knew exactly what kind of a bad idea it was to avoid Conner the way she was, but Conner wanting to ask her to prom? That was on a level of “bad idea” usually reserved for invading Russia in the winter or making a sequel to Jurassic Park. What was he thinking? Was he thinking? Was he serious?

Kira sat down at the picnic table where she used to waste time before that detention had changed her life. She had spent a lot of time here in the time before. The time before what, exactly? Had it been Dr. O that changed her life? Or Conner and Ethan? Trent, even? She thought hard about that day, how innocently it had started and how, in a way, it hadn't yet ended.

Maybe it had been Randall. Randall was the one to give her that detention, after all. Everyone knew that the performing on school grounds rule was a joke. The old principal, Principal Donahue, had never once enforced it. Randall, she'd thought, was just trying to be assertive, to earn the respect and fear of her new students. Kira had been able to relate at first, even. It was easier to earn fear than love. But Randall was gone now, an apparent minion of the forces of evil all along. All things considered, Kira couldn't say she was surprised.

Nothing was as innocent as it had been when this picnic table had been her place. That didn’t mean it never would be again, of course. Maybe when this whole thing was over—if it was ever over—she could go back to it. It wasn’t innocence lost, just misplaced.

"Kira?" She turned at the voice. Conner stood on the other side of the table, backpack over one shoulder and a look of concern on his face. "What are you doing out here? I thought we were meeting at Hayley's."

"I don't remember making plans," Kira snapped back, standing up to gather her things. "Besides, I was just leaving."

"Did I say something?" Conner asked, grabbing her science book. "To offend you, I mean. Because it's like for the last week you've been—"

"I'm fine," She answered with a forced smile. She made a reach for her book, but he held it above her reach. It was unfair that he was this tall.

"Not until you tell me what's going on with you." The look in his eyes was surprisingly sincere, like he was really worried that he'd done something wrong. He hadn't. Not actually. Just hypothetically. "You haven't been hanging around any personality altering meteors, or mind controlling skeletons, have you?"

"Very funny," She sighed. "I promise, I'm fine. It's really nothing."

"Okay, well, good." He handed her the book, and sat on the bench. There was something unsure in his voice though. Despite all her practice, Kira wasn't as good at lying as she'd like to have been. Maybe that was only with the guys. "You know," Conner went on. "Dr. O and Hayley think Messogog's up to something bigger than usual."

"When isn't he?"

"Fair enough," He laughed. It was weird, Kira thought, that they could laugh about this sort of thing, but they did. "But what I'm really getting at is... It's hard enough for us to get used to working with Trent on our side now, let alone dealing with whatever it is that you're "not" going through. I just wanna make sure that we can handle whatever Messogog's up to as a team."

"Watch it, you're letting your leader show."

"It's kinda my job."

He was right, though, and she couldn't even hate him for it. It seemed so petty now to let the vaguest possibility of Conner's asking her to prom get in the way of their team's functionality. One was the fate of the world and the other was a stupid dance. "If you wanna, we can probably still catch Trent at Hayley's. I think Ethan's already standing in line for that movie."

"Yeah, sure," Conner smiled, taking the rest of Kira's books. She thought about protesting, but it was easily just a friendly gesture and she did have a lot to carry. "There's something I want to ask you, actually."

Kira felt her stomach creep up her throat. He wouldn't. He couldn't. Not after that we-gotta-function-as-a-team speech. "Oh?"

"You know how prom's coming up, right?  Well, I was thinking that since you don't have a date, and I don't have one, yet, that you and I might as well—"

"I can't." She blurted. "I mean, I... I have plans."

"You have a date?" His eyebrows came together, in the look she'd seen him give every test he'd ever taken. "I thought you said..."

"I don't have a date," She fumbled over her thoughts. There had to be a way to get out of this situation with minimal awkwardness, but also without hurting his feelings or lying to him. Lying to him in specifics wouldn't work, even if she could come up with something to say. "I just have plans. I don't really want a date."

"Oh."

"Um, thanks, though." She wracked her mind trying to come up with something to say, but instead she just looked at the ground. The grass was starting to smell like summer again.

"Just so we're clear, I wasn't asking because I'm, like, in love with you or whatever," Conner started walking toward the parking lot, and Kira followed. "I just thought, you know, if no one asked you that would be a shame, because you deserve to go with someone if you want. It was totally a partners in crime fighting type offer.”

"Obviously," She forced a laugh. He was playing it off, and she was totally willing to play along. "That would be... I mean, can you imagine? Me and you?"

"Yeah, I mean you're impossible to get along with," Conner laughed with her, as they approached his car. He opened the door and threw her books and his backpack across the backseat.

"I’d be surprised if you could find a date at all, with your womanizing reputation," She added, as she slid into the passenger seat. Usually Ethan sat shotgun, but leave it to Ethan to not be there the one time she'd rather have sat in the back.

"Hey!" He protested. "Are you saying I’m damaged goods? I’ve been living like a monk since—Well, maybe that’s not true. But you watch; I'll probably have a date by tomorrow."

No sooner did he make this declaration, than their wrists let out a series of synchronized beeps.

"Dr. O? You got Conner and Kira," Conner's voice was suddenly that serious tone that somehow made him sound five years older.

"Guys, we’ve got a problem," It was Hayley to answer. "Zeltrax has a civilian. You guys should meet Ethan and Trent at the steel plant on Spring Street. Tommy just left."

"We’re on it, Hayles,” Conner said, nodding solemnly.

Kira breathed a silent sigh of relief. She could really go for punching something right about now.


End file.
